In just a couple of days, Niantic managed to deliver two big blows to the Pokemon Go community. The company released a major app update for iPhone and Android that brings over various fixes and improvements, but also an annoying new “feature” — the nearby Pokemon tracker is now gone. It wasn’t working properly in the weeks ahead of the update and Niantic was aware of the problem, but it “fixed” it by removing the functionality from the app instead of repairing it.
You’d think that it’s not such a bad thing. After all, there are numerous third-party apps and services that let you hunt down nearby Pokemon by telling you exactly where and when they’re going to spawn. However, Niantic isn’t too happy with these “cheats,” and some of them are already offline.
In other words, there’s not going to be a way to tell where Pokemon are spawning. The official tracker doesn’t work and the unofficial sites are either down or, from the looks of things, they may all be taken offline in the near future.
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“People are only hurting themselves because it takes some fun out of the game,” John Hanke told Forbes a few days ago. “People are hacking around trying to take data out of our system, and that’s against our terms of service.”
Little did we know that the Pokemon maps would be taken offline so swiftly.
Pokevision is one of the most popular ones, and the service confirmed it’s going offline. “Hey, guys. We wish we had some news for you. At this moment, we are respecting Niantic and Nintendo’s wishes,” a Twitter message read. “Will keep you guys posted.”
Hey guys. We wish we had some news for you
At this moment, we are respecting Niantic and Nintendo's wishes.
Will keep you guys posted
<3
— Pokevision (@PokeVisionGo) July 31, 2016
Pokemon Go players are, as you can imagine, furious about the news.
Pokevision received visits from 16 million people in the first six days following its launch, the site’s creators told Tech Insider. Pokevision cofounder Yangcheng Liu told Forbes the site could be down for good.
PokeHound.com is also down, and its Twitter account is gone. Apparently, PokeHound received a cease and desist letter from Niantic, which is embedded below.
Niantic and Nintendo have sent cease and desist letters to the tracker sites. Here is a snapshot:
The Poke Radar app might still be available, but don’t be too surprised if Niantic shuts that one down as well.
